As a leading social media speaker
and consultant, I often get asked about how to start a social media
consulting business and develop initial clients. I am happy to mentor a
new generation of social media-savvy business consultants, and I plan
to be blogging about this more in the future, as I believe the subject
can aid not only social media consultants, but also educate any
consultant, entrepreneur, or small business owner on how to better
utilize social media to launch and develop new business.
Starting
any new business is a risk, and while I find many people might have the
expertise in any given field, they might not have the sales skills nor
even the social media marketing skills to develop a social media consulting
business and build up a company. Yes, I have met social media
consultants who they themselves are not good social media marketing
practitioners. I will not comment on what types of social media
consulting projects these individuals might be appropriate for, as every
professional brings a unique skill set and plethora of experiences to
the table, but I will say that going forward if you cannot display your
own social media marketing expertise with your own brand, it will be
very difficult to establish the credibility that is necessary to develop
business. This is because, although I have done social media
consulting on customer service-related projects in the past, the
majority of inquiries I get are related to social media marketing
consulting.
Assuming that you are qualified for the job and are
committing enough time and resources to make your social media
consulting business a success, here are the 6 most important steps in
how to start social media consulting:
1) Credibility
This
is a no brainer. Without credibility, no one will hire you. How to
establish credibility as a social media consultant is a whole separate
conversation, but you need to think hard and imagine, if you were on the
other side of the table, why they would trust you with their business.
Assuming you don’t have any previous experience consulting with clients,
a given here is that you have your own robust social media presence and
at least can showcase your own online brand to gain some credibility
with potential clients. Writing your own ebooks are another way of
establishing credibility through showcasing your knowledge.
2) Experience
Combined with credibility, you need to show the
experience that you have which equates to why you can make money off of
others. If you don’t have any social media experience you can’t expect
to get any business. Start with your own brand, and then lend a
helping hand by offering pro bono work to others in your family and/or
network that you can assist and build a track record from. There are
also a lot of non-profit organizations who would appreciate your social media contributions.
3) Online Branding
Social
media marketing is all about getting found online, so you obviously
need to have proper online branding that permeates your own website as
well as your social media properties so that there is a sense of trust
in your company. If you recommend clients should be on Snapchat, yet
you don’t have an account there yet, your online branding is incomplete!
4) Contribute Your Own Content
Anybody
can go onto Twitter and ReTweet everyone else’s content. But what is
your opinion on utilizing social media for business? If you aren’t
contributing your own unique and insightful content, why would someone
who finds you in social media want to visit your website and find out
more about you? How would they be confident that you can apply your
expertise to their particular situation? This content can be displayed
as a blog post, an ebook, or a regular newsletter you send out to
prospective clients.
5) Make Connections, Both Online AND Offline
People
buy from people they know as well as recommendations from trusted
friends via word-of-mouth. While social media is relatively new, the
same old rules of business apply. You need to work hard to engage with
others on social media channels to build out the reach of your network,
but don’t forget to take those relationships offline and expand upon
them. Chances are your first deals are going to come locally, so I
would concentrate on local networking before being too ambitious and
thinking nationally or even globally.
6) Learn from Your Customer
Pretty
soon, assuming that you have followed the above steps, you will
undoubtedly meet someone who might be interested in your services.
Well, what exactly are your services? It’s time not to spy on the sites of other social media strategy consultants
for ideas, but to take a tally of what you have done pro bono for those
in your network. It’s also time to learn from your customer and
understand their pain and needs and provide solutions that solves their
problems. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s time to pick up a copy of
the classic book Solution Selling for an education that most sales professionals go through early in their career.
My
background is in business-to-business (B2B) sales and business
development, so developing business is natural for me, but I realize
that many consultants are not experienced sales people themselves. I
have personally been able to successfully develop business through a
combination of the above things, and I believe it can be a successful
formula for you as well. I am also not trying to make my answer seem
“zen-like” or abstract, but I do believe that it requires a lot of hard
work of combining the above, not to mention creativity with some
additional luck regarding the timing of conversations and
opportunities. There are a lot more specific things that I can point
out, but I will leave them for future blog posts and webinars on the
subject.
Would love your feedback on if there is anything else
that other experienced and successful social media consultants can add
to help everyone out in how to start a social media consulting
business. On the other hand, if you are an aspiring social media
consultant, does this give you more confidence to pursue your passion?
Source: http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/how-to-start-a-social-media-consulting-business-3525/
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